We’ve compiled our top ten Twitter stories of the week, which includes a look at how social media contributes to the massive amounts of online information we all process each day, news that Twitter drives more breaking news traffic to the Guardian newspaper than any other social media platform, a visual that unveils some eye-opening social media photo facts, thoughts from a new study on the future of Twitter and key statistics, facts and figures for Vine.

You’re a user of social media, right? Have you ever given any thought to how much content you process each day? No? Well, consider this. About two-thirds of the information that we digest on social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook is text – tweets, of course, plus links to new stories, articles and so on. The rest is images, videos and music. And it all adds up. How much? Studies have shown that your typical social media user consumes 285 pieces of content daily, which equates to an eye-opening 54,000 words, and, for the truly active, as many as 1,000 clickable links.

Speaking at the recent #TweetsFromTheTopTwitter event for chief executives, Guardian News & Media CEO Andrew Miller announced that Twitter drives more referral traffic for key breaking news stories to The Guardian than any other social media platform. 10% of the newspaper’s online traffic currently comes from social media, and Twitter plays an integral role.

Did you know that tweets that contain a photo get more than twice the engagement of text-only posts on Twitter? What if I told you that Facebook’s Timeline overhaul increased photo and video engagement by 65 percent, that 80 percent of pins on Pinterest are repins and blog articles with images get 94 percent more views than those without?

What’s the future of Twitter? It’s a weighty, expansive question that’s proved increasingly problematic to answer in the few years since Twitter first opened its doors to an unsuspecting public back in July 2006. Partly this is because what Twitter is now shifts continuously, making it very difficult to guess where and what it will be in just a few months time. And partly it’s because you always have the feeling that Twitter themselves don’t really know what Twitter is, which doesn’t really help.

Did you know that 5 Vines are tweeted every second? What if I told you that weekends are the most popular times for Vine shares, that 10-11am is the hour of the day that most Vines are sent or that a record 19,667 Vines were recorded and shared on the day of the Boston Marathon tragedy?

The Twitter Profile page has gone through anumber of redesigns over the years which, aesthetically, have almost always been pleasing. However, for the end user, particularly if you’re managing a brand profile on Twitter, having to then re-learn and re-implement all of the necessary images for the profile page in their respective heights, widths and file sizes can be both time-consuming and problematic. And if you’re completely new to Twitter, utterly confusing. Where do you even begin?

Did you know that close to half of all people worldwide expect customer support from social networks? Unfortunately, 61 percent of users feel that companies do not communicate effectively with them on social media, and more than a quarter (26.3 percent) say they have waited up to 24 hours for a response from their favourite social brands.

Shocker: the 74+ demographic is the fastest growing among social networks. The following infographic, created by Wishpond, illustrates how senior citizens are using social media and why it’s important to consider that demographic’s digital presence in your social media marketing strategy.

Did you know that more than three-quarters (77 percent) of Fortune 500 companies have an active Twitter account, and that the most-followed Fortune 500 corporate profile on Twitter is, uh, @Facebook? Conversely, 70 percent of Fortune 500 organisations use Facebook, 69 percent are on YouTube and one-in-three (35 percent) have a Google+ page.

Who’s the most influential world leader? It’s a debatable point, but you’d be hard-pressed to find someone more influential than U.S. president Barack Obama. Obama, of course, is on Twitter – and has been for some time – so by definition he must be the most influential head of state on there, too, right? Wrong. At least according to one new study, which suggests that it’s Pope Francis who is actually Twitter’s most influential world leader. Pretty good going, when you consider that “he” has only been tweeting since last December.

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